Moving to & living in Playa del Carmen
My Moving Guide for Mexico, Playa del Carmen will help you to find your way to a new small town and the exiting culture of Mexico. I moved down to this area 8 years ago and I know how it is to be new in town and not be able to speak the language good enough. My knowledge will help you to feel more comfortable and safe during the process of moving and I put together all the information you need to set up your new home in beautiful Playa del Carmen.
How to set up a telephone line and Internet
It is very easy to set up a contract for a national telephone line, if your property has already the installation for it. Although
this is usually the case, you should double check with your landlord or the company you are renting from.
A basic phone line from Telmex (biggest telephone company in Mexico) includes a certain number of free minutes for local calls
and cost around 20 USD per month.
If you add an Internet Service you will pay another 30 USD per month. Telmex also offers a couple of packages or extra services
for long distance calls or international calls.
To set up a telephone line with Telmex you just go to the local office from
Telmex in Playa del Carmen (40th Avenue and 4th Street) and take your passport and one receive which shows the address of your
property (water bill or electricity bill) with you. For the contract you pay around 100 USD
and within 7 days you will have your
telephone line set up; this is what Telmex is advertising. Do not count on this! It can take up to several weeks. The employees from
Telmex usually do not speak English.
Another way to set up telephone and Internet is with Cablemas, a company which offers television, telephone and Internet in a package
which is around 70 USD per month. The office from Cablemas is located on 10th Avenue with 26th street and for a contract you need your
pasport and one receive which shows the address of your property (water bill or electricity bill). The employees from Cablemas sometimes
speak English and it takes the company between 1 and 2 weeks to set up the system.
National Mobil Phones
If you want to use a Mobil Phone in Playa del Carmen you have different options. You can use your Mobil Phone or you buy a Mobil Phone with a local Mobil phone number. You also just can buy the chip and use it in your Mobil Phone (please check with your provider if this is possible). A chip cost around 12 USD and to make calls you just buy a prepaid cards to load your Mobile phone; these prepaid cards are available for 10, 20, 30 or 50 USD and are called Amigo Telcel. They are sold in many shops, pharmacies and supermarkets. To load your Mobil Phone you dial * 333 and than number 2, after this you dial the number you find on the back of the prepaid card (after you scratched it open). When you typed in the numbers correct a voice will tell you in Spanish how much money you have on your account; to check your account you dial *333 and than number 1. A voice will tell you in Spanish how much money is left on your account. The prices for Mobil Phones vary from brand to brand; usually there is already a credit on the Mobil Phone, when you buy a new one.
Television
The most used companies to set up television are Cablemas or Sky. Both companies offer different packages from 30 USD to 100 USD a month (channels in English and Spanish). Cablemas has an office on 10th Avenue with 26th Street and to set up a contract you just have to take your passport and one receive which shows the address from your property (water bill or electricity bill). You pay the service in advanced every month in the office. Please double check with your landlord or the company you are renting from if Cablemas has service in your property. If Cablemas can not offer the service for you, you can set up a contract with Sky. They have service everywhere in Playa del Carmen. To contract Sky you have to call 01800 20 18 770 from a land line (they speak English) and tell them which service you would like to order. You can check their channel packages on their website (www.sky.com.mx). If you set up the contract with Sky via telephone you can pay them only with credit card. If you go to an office in Playa del Carmen (you will find them in the supermarkets), you can pay them also in cash or you can make a deposit in a bank. Sky has 2 different systems; the first one is an 18 month lease where you pay 10 USD for the installation of the equipment and your monthly fee for your channel package or you buy the equipment (around 180 USD) and pay the monthly fee of your channel package. The advantage to have equipment is that you can prepay the channel package just for a couple of month. You do not have to set up a contract for 18 month.
Waterbill and drinking water
If the tab water is not included in your monthly rent, you will get a bill from the water company every month. The cost of tab water in Playa del Carmen is cheap. You can pay the water bill at the office of the water company on 10th Avenue with 6th Street or at most supermarkets at the cashier, also at the Oxxo markets. The tab water in Playa del Carmen is no drinking water. There are 2 companies that sell drinking water in Playa del Carmen, Electropura and Cristal. You can either buy the large bottles of 20 Liter/5 Gallon at any grocery or quick mart or you watch out for your “water guy”. These guys circulate throughout the neighborhoods on tricycle carts or a company truck, selling water. The best part is that they each have their own style of melodic warning to let you know they are near by if you need a refill. I tend to buy from the guys on tricycle carts because it feels good to lighten their load that they are peddling around. As they ride around, they blurt out with their personalized inflection, “A-G-U-A-A-A-A!” (water) usually rotating in the name of the company they represent… ” E-L-E-C-T-R-O-P-U-R-A-A-A!” One of the challenges is catching them when they are on your street. If you are low on drinking water and happen to be in the shower with a thick lather of shampoo on your head when you happen to hear the water guy calling outside… if desperate, you may chose to jump out of the shower and run to the closest window and shout back, “AGUA!!!” This is the signal to them that you need a bottle and they promptly bring the water to your door. If you have an empty bottle to exchange, it costs around 2 USD for a bottle of 20 Liter/5,3 Gallon. If you do not have a bottle to exchange, it costs around 7 USD. I have 3 bottles so that I always have a full back-up. A “water guy” is a part of life in Playa del Carmen. No one drinks the tap water here. And you will NOT find a restaurant in Playa del Carmen that would serve someone tap water. Even if it comes in a glass, I can assure you it came from a bottle. Business owners would never want a visitor to have a bad experience. Also know that the ice is always made with good purified bottled water as well.
Rental contracts
If you found the place in Playa del Carmen you want to live in, you set up a rental contract with the owner or the administration of the building and you usually pay one month of rent as a damage deposit and the rent of the month in advanced. A rental contract states the agreement between the owner and the renter of the property. There are different types of rental contracts or rental agreements. Usually they are in Spanish and signed by both parties. Most of the contracts are signed in at a Notary Public office or they are getting filed by a lawyer after the signing. The cost of a contract has to pay the renter of the property and is between 150 USD and 250 USD.
Gas & Electricity
Gas and electricity are usually not included in the rent. A lot of long term rental units have a stationary gas tank which provides gas for all the units (and the owner/renter of these units pay a fix price for gas every month) or you have your own gas tank. Please check with your landlord what kind of system for the gas you have and how and where you have to pay the gas bill or where do you have to buy a gas tank and how to set it up. Electricity is to be paid every 2 month and the amount depends a lot on how often you use your air condition. The prices for electricity are higher in summer (30th of April to 30th of September) than in the winter.
Living cost
The living costs in Playa del Carmen are in comparison to other cities cheaper. This starts at the grocery, where you can find a variety of tropical fruits and vegetables for a better price than you are used to. Also it is very affordable to have a maid and/or a gardener; prices for services and repairs are less. You do not spend a lot of money in clothing, because you can forget about the whole winter collection, you just don’t need it in the Caribbean.
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